Google (GOOG) Affirms FTC Review of Recent Waze Purchase

Following a bit of speculation, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) affirmed that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is launching an inquiry into its $1.1 billion Waze acquisition.

Details of the antitrust review weren't disclosed, according to the WSJ. The FTC might have asked Google not to integrate Waze pending review.

Despite the review, the acquisition is unlikely to be reversed. The FTC would need to find evidence that Google's acquisition would harm competition in the mapping market. Waze would have had to have been a competitor to Google or there must be evidence uncovered that Google bought the company simply to keep it away from peers like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT).

Microsoft had been an investor in Waze up to the deal.

Waze will remain a stand-alone company following the deal, but Google said it would integrate Waze's traffic data while Waze would incorporate some Google Maps data.

Revenue at Waze was too low to trigger an automatic review, said the WSJ, citing people familiar with the matter.